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Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

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11–20 of 381 posts

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#11
Microsoft's advertising still doesn't do it for me. Frankly, most commercials makes me think more about their lameness than the product.

The exception is Xbox ads. As 'rakkhi' noted, the Xbox product line is actually great, and I think its advertising is one reason for its success. Xbox ads, everything down to the cool logo/sound thing in each one, make me think about the product, instead of making me feel sorry for the company that made the commercial.

Start by throwing out all the copycat stuff. ("I'm a PC"...I get it. Stupid. Is that the best you can do?) If you're going to copy anyone, copy yourself: take Xbox ads, and extend their style to the rest of the product line. Then go even further.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#12
Personally, I think Microsoft needs to make the strategic "pivot" to selling experiences - not necessarily operating systems.

They've done a great job of this with Xbox and Windows 7. I was incredibly sad when the Courier got cancelled. This was a big head pound moment for me. At it's core, MS sells software, but increasingly, it seems apparent that consumers are going to spend their dollars on hardware/software combos (this is primarily a nod to Apple, but look at the care that Google invested with Android - the G1, the close relationship to Droid, and Nexus One, and RIM making all their devices). It's no longer enough to say "here's an operating system, do what you want with it." This was the previous mobile strategy, and now it's gotten them into the position their in.

Mobile seems to be figured out already - MS will be fighting for 3rd place (at least for the next 5-7 years). Tablets is still a potential area for innovation - the iPad leaves a lot to be desired, ChromeOS seems to be dead, Android Tablets have yet to really take off.

Overall - there seems to be an inherent political culture at MS. It's intriguing that Apple has a higher market value with 10% of the employees. I know so many brilliant, smart people that work at Microsoft, but I haven't heard from them in the past 5 years - they seem to all be cogs in a big machine.

Encourage employees to start their own companies. Maybe have a blanket policy of providing seed money to any employee that wants to - YC style. Take a lot of smaller risks instead of few big ones. Zuckerberg would have taken $10,000 for 10% when he first started - now 1.6% cost you $240,000,000! You could have invested in 200,000 ideas for that price. Let your people run with their own ideas, without having to sit through 80 million meetings and having their ideas suffer death by 1000 PM's.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#13
Don't copy the bad aspects of OS X, only the good ones. In turn, don't throw out the good aspects of Windows (XP), only the bad ones. Not everything Apple does is good - make up your own mind.

(I hate how Windows 7 removed the likeable things about Windows XP and introduced the annoying things about OS X).

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#14
post #5

Interesting if real. Ok lets go for benefit of the doubt, starting with the highest priority items: Mobile technology - The Windows phone 7 will not succeed. Sure you will sell a few phones but for the marketing and sheer executive brainspend on this you will not get a profitable return within 5 years. I had a good debate on Quora about what sucess looks like for Microsoft and I don't think this is realistically achi…

It's real. I know I'm obviously going to say that, but hey.

Also, checking out the Quora thing now. Cheers

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#15
I would like to see .NET framework penetration numbers. A lot of .NET developers still target 2.0 for desktop apps because the perception is that that 3.0+ have a much smaller installation base - even though numbers posted on statowl.com and Scott Hanselman's blog suggest otherwise. This is definitely one case where more transparency by Microsoft would benefit both them and the developer community.

I would also like to see the Certificate Revocation List checked less frequently. Microsoft Office add-in developers actually get penalized for having digitally signed add-ins, since the (daily?) CRL check slows Office application startup significantly.

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#16

Personally, I think Microsoft needs to make the strategic "pivot" to selling experiences - not necessarily operating systems. They've done a great job of this with Xbox and Windows 7. I was incredibly sad when the Courier got cancelled. This was a big head pound moment for me. At it's core, MS sells software, but increasingly, it seems apparent that consumers are going to spend their dollars on hardware/software comb…

+1 for that last paragraph.

Just thinking that you need a billion dollar product or it's not worth it, will mean that no potentially game-changing ideas that start as a seed and will grow can come through the system. You're left with only the options to buy (but now the other companies will not sell as they have wisened up to their value) or partner (and you'll not get the real benefit or possibilities from it, and your competitors might).

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#17

Personally, I think Microsoft needs to make the strategic "pivot" to selling experiences - not necessarily operating systems. They've done a great job of this with Xbox and Windows 7. I was incredibly sad when the Courier got cancelled. This was a big head pound moment for me. At it's core, MS sells software, but increasingly, it seems apparent that consumers are going to spend their dollars on hardware/software comb…

Care to explain how come Chrome OS is dead?

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#18
post #13

Don't copy the bad aspects of OS X, only the good ones. In turn, don't throw out the good aspects of Windows (XP), only the bad ones. Not everything Apple does is good - make up your own mind. (I hate how Windows 7 removed the likeable things about Windows XP and introduced the annoying things about OS X).

Could you provide examples of things you like/don't like in OSX and XP?

Re: Ask HN: What do you want to tell Microsoft?

#19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would add specifically that virtualization is overdue. Apple's strategy back in the day was pretty good: sandbox the entire old OS so that users can still get most things to "just work", but then support only a subset of APIs on the new OS. Apple also kept the old OS as-is (i.e. ugly), while using all the nice new technologies and look-and-feel as bait to encourage developers to move.

Yes very good point. Build a good foundation OS and then virtualise for backwards compatibility. I think .net is a good bait for such a new system. From the little interaction I've had with C# devs, they seem to like it.

There is already the XP mode in Windows 7, which boots a virtualized XP for compatibility.
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